Elder Neel: 3/27/23

 

St Patrick's day dinner

Hello my friends and family!!! It is so good to write to you all again. It is a blessing to be able to look over the week and just see how good God has been, and then share it with you! All the up’s and down’s, indescribable joy and difficult times, crazy fun and miracles from our Heavenly Father. I also want to thank all of you who have sent me emails. It means a ton to hear from you. I am not able to respond to everyone but know I read every one and am just so thankful for you. Alright into the amazingness of the week.

What a wonderful time it is to be in right now. In just a short span of time we have so many incredible and fun things happening. Saint Patrick’s day comes first (my homeland🍀) and then we get spring rolling in, Easter, General Conference, the resurrection of our Savior, my mom’s birthday, and we definitely cannot forget about March Madness. All these amazing times to feel joy! There’s not a better feeling in this world than just being and feeling happy. Now I don’t want you thinking life is just great and nothing bad happens to this guy because there is a lot of hard! Life is difficult sometimes and it has been for me. But when we find this joy in the things around us, oh how much less the difficult things affect us. Life is good and God is good. 

We’ll start off with fun first and then spiritual. I’ve been doing a March Madness bracket challenge with the district and a few others and it has been loads of fun. If any of you know me well, March Madness is my life. I analyze the brackets, look over all the stats, over think way too much, and I still end up having the worst bracket. But that is what has made this year so much fun. I don’t know anything going on with basketball right now and I had the first time in my life the opportunity to just pick a bracket without any expectations. While this year has been full of madness I ended up doing a lot better than I thought. It’s also sweet because it’s made our district a lot more unified and I always make sure to send in something spiritual for everyone to share or think about after giving a bracket update. I’ll send in a picture later of what it looks like. This is a little bit of what brings me joy.

I was also able to go to my first Quinceañera!! Hermana Wright’s daughter just barely turned 15 and so we got to party. And let me tell you, Hispanic parties are a kind of their own. I honestly love them more than any other party I’ve been to. I loved seeing how much love and friendship everyone felt for each other there even if they didn’t know each other. At Hispanic parties you get to know and love everyone quick. One of our other member’s sons, Abraham, got all of us Elders that were there to go dance with him in the middle and let me tell you he can dance. He taught us some good moves and we danced like no one was watching. Except everyone was watching because it was the funniest thing to see a bunch of Elders just go crazy and they loved it! I cannot wait for the next one I can go to. 

We’ve been able to see a lot of small miracles happen this week. It’s the small miracles that make the biggest difference. Raul has come to church almost every week since we found him and loves what we do. He is a talker though! He rivals how much the Neel side can talk and that’s saying something. But it has been amazing and humbling to see him progress in this gospel. He loves standing up for our church when his friends at work start trying to tear him down. He is an example to me and I love him with all my heart. 

We were finally able to meet with Mary Lou and Orlando again after weeks of not being able to. They both work two jobs and don’t get home until past 8 so meeting with them is kind of hard. But while out street contacting one day we decided to just stop by and Mary Lou is just pulling up. They invited us in and we had a fire Restoration introduction lesson. I say introduction because they didn’t have much time but they really just want to find the truth. We boldly stated that we have it and they just need to come and see. Man there is not a better feeling in the world than telling someone we have the truth and you see them start to grasp onto that. Mary Lou and Orlando are in for big things.

We got in contact with one of our media referrals Luis that we got way back in January! We swore he either didn’t exist or wanted nothing to do with us because we tried every way of contacting him. And then yesterday we decided to just call one more time (and we had to use *67 because I think we got blocked) but he answered and wanted to start having lessons! Miracles are real. And as we were walking into church I saw one of my best friends Ricky walking out. He has bounced in and out of being inactive and stopped meeting with us because he didn’t feel worthy to. There were some things he was dealing with and couldn’t be around church because of the pain he felt so we put it into God’s hands. But yesterday I see him walking out of church as we are walking in and my jaw drops. He smiles big and say’s I’m here. He comes up and gives me the biggest hug and I couldn’t stop thanking Heavenly Father. Biggest miracle of my mission so far. He’s coming back to one of the english wards because of some friends he has who attend there and has started going to the church’s 12 step recovery class. Ricky is going places and is one of the most purest examples of Christ-like love this world has ever seen. 

Well that’s a wrap because this is getting long but I am realizing how much more I just love to write! Bear with me because my emails might start getting as long as my sisters when she was out on her mission. I’m kidding, I won’t ever reach those lengths but they still might be a tad bit long. Love you Lace!! Anyways I wanted to share some of my feelings with you on the love of God. I have been greatly pondering this question and I want you all to do the same this week. “Where would I be if it wasn’t for the love of God. 

No question has ever hit me harder and had such a profound effect on my life. Without the love of God I wouldn’t be on a mission. I wouldn’t be who I am today. I wouldn’t have the strong testimony of this gospel without it. I would be absolutely nothing without it. It has caused me to see just how dependent and needful I am of this love. But the beautiful truth is that it is always there. We’re coming up on Easter. A time where the love of God probably has never been more prevalent than at this moment. The gift of His Son for each of us. God loved us enough that He sent His son to live, die and live again so that we could do the exact same. And not only that but to atone for our sins so that He could know how to succor His people. God loves us. I know and testify of this with all my heart. There have been times where it is so hard to feel. But I can promise you that it is there. Because if it can be there for me, I know it can be there for you too. I love you all so so much and don’t forget it. Remember I am just a prayer away. Until next time,

Elder Neel🤠✊️